Sacrifices
by Damonficgirl
Summary: Vin/Cat fluff. Vaguely post "Trust No One." Mostly lighthearted. Cat decides its time for Heather to move out. Vin/Cat romance ensues.


**Sacrifices **

"Heather this apartment just isn't big enough for the two of us." No that was just cruel.

"Heather, you know I've loved sharing the apartment with you but…" Nope, still too harsh.

"Heather, I was thinking, now that you've got a job, you don't want your big sister getting in the way of your fun..." No, too manipulative.

"Heather I love you but I'm in love with a mystery man and I need to ask you to move out to protect his identity." Definitely not.

Catherine laughed at herself in the mirror. She was a mess. She was a hopeless love struck mess and changing her living arrangement because of a guy this early on was crazy, but it wasn't just any guy, it was Vincent, and things were complicated. JT had taught her how to sweep the apartment for bugs but she couldn't do things like that with Heather coming and going. She couldn't keep him safe. For that matter, she couldn't keep Heather safe.

But she still felt rotten.

Really horribly rotten.

Scum of the earth, worst sister in the world rotten.

"Heather, can you sit down for a sec, we need to talk."

"Sorry Cat, got to go, get this, you know the event company that I'm working for now?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Well, since I'm the newbie I wouldn't normally get considered for this kind of thing but everyone at the office has like the flu or something so I get to fill in them at this bridal fair. How incredible is that? It's like a huge step and I'm really excited that they trust me with this, even if they did just pick me because everyone else is sick."

"That's great Heather," Cat smiled, trying to sound enthused and not like the back stabbing bitch she felt like she was. "But when you get home there's something we need to talk about."

"That's the thing, it's out of town, I just came home to pack, I'm flying out to California – for a three day weekend, incredible or what?"

"That is incredible," Cat smiled. She let go of her plans. Now wasn't the time to evict her sister. "You travel safe alright?"

"Sure thing, miss you," Heather promised and kissed her sister on the cheek. "Text you when I land."

"You'd better."

Cat shook her head as her sister hurried out in the door in a flurry. She really was happy that Heather seemed to be finding her way. Besides she now had three days alone in the apartment. Well not alone, not if she could help it. Cat pulled out her phone. She wanted to ring him but she knew texting was safer, harder to trace.

The anticipation almost killed her, waiting for dark, waiting for him to come. She was watching TV when he slipped through her window.

"So what's the emergency," Vincent asked shyly, his hands buried in his coat pockets as he sauntered nervously into her living room. He'd been in the apartment before he still felt rude just walking in an announced.

"Oh my god Vincent!" Catherine cried, startled.

"Sorry."

"No it's my fault, I was impatient so I started watching crappy TV."

"You were impatient?" he flirted.

"Very," she admitted moving to him. The nervous energy between them was palpable.

This smile showed her how much he loved hearing that. "Me too. What did you do about your sister?"

"Nothing yet, she's out of town until Monday."

"So you have the place to yourself," Vincent remarked, casting a glance around he apartment.

"We have the apartment to ourselves. If you want?" Catherine suggested nervously.

"I don't know, I could be home playing the Xbox with JT," Vincent teased, pretending to be weighing up his options.

"Fine then I guess I should let you get back to it," Catherine countered, stepping away from him. Two could play that game.

"Not so fast," he countered, reaching for her waist and pulling her towards him.

"So have you eaten yet?"

"I'm not really hungry," he whispered, leaning in for a kiss.

"Vincent, we said we'd take this slow."

"We did," he agreed. "I can do this slowly. Very very slowly."

"Just this okay? I'm not ready for anything else. Not yet."

"Are you afraid of me?"

"I'm afraid of me."

"You shouldn't be, you're amazing," he flattered.

"I just don't want to rush things just because we've got the apartment and no one's trying to kill us, at least not right now," Cat explained wirily.

"I won't. We won't," he promised and she nodded in acknowledgement and finally stopped fighting the desire to just kiss him already. He kept his promise, it was long and slow and careful. He was so strong but it was the most gentle tentative kiss she'd ever had.

"So dinner?" she suggested blearily when they finally parted.

"Sure."

"Wine?"

"Not a great idea for me, but you should have some, relax," Vincent encouraged.

"I'm not sure that I know how," Catherine admitted. "What do you eat?" Cat asked as she pulled a few vegetables out of the fridge.

"Anything. JT can only really cook pizza and Chinese food, and when I say cook I mean order."

"It's amazing you two have survived this long. If Muirfield only knew all they had to do was follow the trail of take-out boxes."

"Hey we occasionally make 2 minute noodles. And there's always cereal," Vincent reasoned.

"Cereal?" Catherine asked suspiciously.

"I think I've tried every flavour," Vincent confessed sadly.

"That's kind of pathetic."

"I know, my life is kind of pathetic or haven't you worked that out yet? At least it was until a couple of months ago."

"What happened to change things?" Cat asked playing along.

"I met this girl."

"Really, tell me more."

"She was really pushy."

"Oh really?" Cat threw a piece of carrot at him. He caught it in his mouth.

"Yeah, super pushy," he added daringly after he swallowed the carrot. "But she kind of grew on us."

"Really?"

"Yeah, did I mention that she was breathtakingly beautiful? Even if she was super pushy," he grinned.

"You must have left that part out. So was there anything about this girl you liked other than her looks?" she gave him a warning look.

"I suppose I liked her heart. She has this big warm heart from trying to look after all the people in her life; like she won't kick her little sister out of their apartment even though she wants to be alone with her boyfriend. She's so selfless she doesn't want to hurt her feelings."

"Oh she has a boyfriend? You didn't mention that before."

"Well it's early days, but I think it's pretty serious."

Catherine nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds like it might be."

"Yeah I think so."

"I guess I can agree with that assessment."

"You're very formal Detective Chandler, maybe you should have some more of that wine."

"Are you trying to get me drunk?"

"Never. But I do want you to relax. How about I chop some of those vegetables so you can sit down?"

"I'm almost done and I thought you said you couldn't cook?"

"I did a surgical rotation; I think I can handle a few vegetables."

"So it sounds really wrong asking 'how was your day?' under the circumstances," Catherine smirked awkwardly.

"Yeah same old same old. But you can tell me about yours," Vincent invited.

"That seems kind of one sided. What do you really do during the day?"

"Sometimes I sleep, I make the most of the night so I'm usually pretty warn out by morning. JT would never admit it but I do help out around the place a bit, sometimes I help him prepare for classes, grade papers or do laundry."

"Really? Can you do that?"

"What laundry or grade biology papers?"

"Both," Catherine laughed.

"Well I was only doctor not a professor or anything but I can handle a little first year chem and bio. And I can fluff and fold with the best of them."

"You're a man of many talents."

"Indeed," Vince smiled. "What about you?"

"Can I do laundry? Because you know I'm lost when it comes to science. I was pre-law remember."

"So what made you want to be a cop? Wait stupid question," Vincent winced. The last thing he'd meant to do was bring up painful memories of her Mom.

"No its okay, I don't regret changing paths because of what happened to my Mom. To be honest I think even without what happened I would have found my way out of a courtroom eventually, I like getting out and about. I like feeling confident walking the streets."

"Being a cop give you that?"

"Yeah it does. For a long time I was so scared, and then I realised that I could chose not to be."

Vincent nodded. "And the guys on the force do they give you a hard time?"

"At first and yeah we get more of a ribbing than most, but it doesn't bother me. Not much anyway. I choose not to let it."

"That's a great attitude."

"Thank you."

Later they wound up curled up on the sofa together. "This is really nice," Vincent observed.

"It is isn't it? I am the worst sister in the world for wanting to be able to do this whenever I – I mean we – want to?"

"Of course not. I'm sorry my situation complicates things, like everything else. I don't want you to damage your relationship with your sister because of me."

"She'll get over it. This was always supposed to be a temporary solution to her housing problem. It was nice that we had a chance to get closer, we'd drifted apart, but we'll stay on each others lives now if we can."

"If you can?"

"You know what I mean, I'm not sure it's safe for Heather to be so involved with me."

"See, there you go again, sacrificing your happiness for me. It's not right Cat."

"Every relationship comes at a cost. Everyone has to make sacrifices or else you never move forward."

"Since when did you become the philosopher?"

"Since my second glass of wine," Cat giggled.

"Did you just giggle?"

"I think I did," Cat admitted, rosy cheeked. "No more grape juice for me."

"It's nice seeing you relax," Vincent smiled, sliding his arm around her.

"It doesn't happen very often so you'd better make the most of it."

"I am," he smiled and leaned towards her. Lots of kissing followed. Catherine was feeling less inhibited and wanted to heat things up but Vincent kept slowing things down, it was teasing and torturous but ultimately what she had asked him to do. It was also what JT had begged him to do, for all of their sakes.

"What if I changed my mind?" Cat asked.

"About what?"

"Taking it slow."

"Normally I would love to go along with that plan and I would totally respect your decision, but we have to be careful. Or rather I have to be careful."

Suddenly it dawned on her that things might be a little more complicated for Vincent than for regular guys.

"Oh, wow, I didn't think about that. I mean can you?" she gave him an odd questioning look.

"I think so, but let's not rush it okay? I mean I should be able to, but I just don't know if in the heat of the moment," Vincent sighed.

"Wow," Cat echoed.

"Yeah. Look maybe I should go," Vincent offered. He was humiliated.

"No way, I said we'd take it slow. I can take it slow, I can take it so slow we just sit here we don't even have to kiss. I just want to be with you Vincent, that's all I want."

"Like this?" suddenly he felt like he had very little to offer. She totally disagreed.

"This is great," Cat smiled. "Really great," she reaffirmed. "How about we watch some TV or is that too lame for a first date?"

"Is this our first date?" Vincent asked, curious.

"I don't know but it feels like a first something."

"It's not lame," Vincent consented. Cat flicked the TV on and snuggled into his arms. Vincent was tense at first but relaxed as she leant against him.

**_Disclaimer: Beauty and the Beast and its characters are not mine._**


End file.
